Agricultural chopper with linked counter knives and shear bar

ABSTRACT

An agricultural harvester includes a chassis; a threshing and separating assembly carried by the chassis; and a chopper assembly carried by the chassis that receives crop material from the threshing and separating assembly. The chopper assembly includes at least one movable chopping knife; a plurality of counter knives movable between a first knife position and a second knife position, the plurality of counter knives configured to cooperate with the at least one chopping knife to cut crop material when in the first knife position; a shear bar movable between a first bar position and a second bar position; and a linkage assembly connected to the plurality of counter knives and the shear bar such that the linkage assembly is selectively actuable to simultaneously move the plurality of counter knives and the shear bar between their respective first and second positions.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/880,181,entitled “AGRICULTURAL CHOPPER WITH LINKED COUNTER KNIVES AND SHEARBAR”, filed Oct. 9, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to agricultural harvesters, and, moreparticularly, to choppers for agricultural harvesters.

2. Description of the Related Art

An agricultural harvester known as a “combine” is historically termedsuch because it combines multiple harvesting functions with a singleharvesting unit, such as picking, threshing, separating and cleaning. Acombine includes a header, which removes the crop from a field, and afeeder housing which transports the crop matter into a threshing rotor.The threshing rotor rotates within a perforated housing, which may be inthe form of adjustable concaves and performs a threshing operation onthe crop to remove the grain. Once the grain is threshed it fallsthrough perforations in the concaves onto a grain pan. From the grainpan the grain is cleaned using a cleaning system, and is thentransported to a grain tank onboard the combine. A cleaning fan blowsair through the sieves to discharge chaff and other debris toward therear of the combine. Non-grain crop material such as straw from thethreshing section proceeds through a residue system, which may utilize astraw chopper to process the non-grain material and direct it out therear of the combine. When the grain tank becomes full, the combine ispositioned adjacent a vehicle into which the grain is to be unloaded,such as a semi-trailer, gravity box, straight truck, or the like; and anunloading system on the combine is actuated to transfer the grain intothe vehicle.

More particularly, a rotary threshing or separating system includes oneor more rotors which can extend axially (front to rear) or transverselywithin the body of the combine, and which are partially or fullysurrounded by a perforated concave. The crop material is threshed andseparated by the rotation of the rotor within the concave. Coarsernon-grain crop material such as stalks and leaves are transported to therear of the combine through a chopper assembly and discharged back tothe field using a spreader system. The separated grain, together withsome finer non-grain crop material such as chaff, dust, straw, and othercrop residue are discharged through the concaves and fall onto a grainpan where they are transported to a cleaning system. Alternatively, thegrain and finer non-grain crop material may also fall directly onto thecleaning system itself.

After passing through the threshing and separating system, the coarsenon-grain crop material can flow into a chopper assembly to be cut intofiner pieces before being spread on the field. Chopping the non-graincrop material into finer pieces increases the surface area of the cropmaterial, allowing for quicker decomposition. One type of chopperassembly that is commonly employed has multiple moving knives thatcooperate with stationary counter knives to chop the crop material intofiner pieces. A shear bar can also be placed after the stationarycounter knives to impede the flow of the crop material through thechopper assembly and increase the chop quality.

In certain cases, the user may not want the crop material that passesthrough the chopper assembly to be cut into finer pieces. In suchinstances, the user can switch the chopper assembly from a chopping modewhere the counter knives are raised to cooperate with the moving knivesto chop the crop material and a disengaged mode where the counter knivesare lowered so that the counter knives do not cooperate with the movingknives. When the counter knives are lowered, the moving knives simplypush any contacted crop material toward the rear of the combine withminimal chopping. However, the shear bar is typically bolted in thechopper assembly and does not lower when the counter knives are placedin the disengaged mode. As such, the shear bar can unnecessarily impedecrop material flow through the chopper assembly in disengaged mode andprovide resistance that causes chopping of the crop material when nochopping is desired.

What is needed in the art is a chopper assembly that can overcome someof the previously described disadvantages of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a plurality of counter knives and a shearbar that are both connected to a linkage assembly, allowing the counterknives and shear bar to be simultaneously moved between differentpositions.

The invention in one form is directed to an agricultural harvesterincluding a chassis; a threshing and separating assembly carried by thechassis; and a chopper assembly carried by the chassis that receivescrop material from the threshing and separating assembly. The chopperassembly includes at least one movable chopping knife; a plurality ofcounter knives movable between a first knife position and a second knifeposition, the plurality of counter knives configured to cooperate withthe at least one chopping knife to cut crop material when in the firstknife position; a shear bar movable between a first bar position and asecond bar position; and a linkage assembly connected to the pluralityof counter knives and the shear bar such that the linkage assembly isselectively actuable to simultaneously move the plurality of counterknives between the first knife position and the second knife positionand the shear bar between the first bar position and the second barposition.

The invention in another form is directed to a chopper assembly for anagricultural harvester including at least one movable chopping knife; aplurality of counter knives movable between a first knife position and asecond knife position, the plurality of counter knives configured tocooperate with the at least one chopping knife to cut crop material whenin the first knife position; a shear bar movable between a first barposition and a second bar position; and a linkage assembly connected tothe plurality of counter knives and the shear bar such that the linkageassembly is selectively actuable to simultaneously move the plurality ofcounter knives between the first knife position and the second knifeposition and the shear bar between the first bar position and the secondbar position.

An advantage of the present invention is the linkage assembly allowsboth the counter knives and shear bar to be switched between twodifferent positions by a single movement.

Another advantage is the linkage assembly can be easily adjusted so thatthe shear bar is not switched between different positions when thecounter knives are switched between different positions.

Yet another advantage is the linkage assembly is readily adaptable to beactuated by a variety of different actuators.

Yet another advantage is the linkage assembly has relatively few movingparts, which reduces the amount of space used by the linkage assemblyand the amount of tolerance stack-up that can occur.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention,and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and theinvention will be better understood by reference to the followingdescription of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of an agricultural harvesteraccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of a chopper assemblyaccording to the present invention with counter knives and a shear barconnected to a linkage assembly and in a disengaged position;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the chopper assembly shown in FIG. 2 withthe counter knives and shear bar in an engaged position;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a portion of the chopper assembly shown inFIGS. 2-3 with an engagement cam in a camming position;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the portion of the chopper assembly shownin FIG. 4 with the engagement cam moved to a non-camming position;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the chopper assembly shown in FIGS. 2-5with the engagement cam in the non-camming position and the counterknives in the engaged position;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the chopper assembly shown in FIG. 2 withan alternate embodiment of a linkage assembly connected to the counterknives and shear bar;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the chopper assembly shown in FIG. 2 withthe linkage assembly including a second engagement cam and the shear barand counter knives both in a disengaged position;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of the chopper assembly shown in FIG. 8 withthe shear bar in an engaged position and the counter knives in adisengaged position;

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a modified bar arm, an engagementcam, a disengagement cam and a shaft of a linkage assembly; and

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of the modified bar arm, engagementcam, disengagement cam, and shaft shown in FIG. 10 after the shaft hasbeen rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding partsthroughout the several views. The exemplifications set out hereinillustrate embodiments of the invention and such exemplifications arenot to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in anymanner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The terms “grain”, “straw” and “tailings” are used principallythroughout this specification for convenience but it is to be understoodthat these terms are not intended to be limiting. Thus “grain” refers tothat part of the crop material which is threshed and separated from thediscardable part of the crop material, which is referred to as non-graincrop material, MOG or straw. Incompletely threshed crop material isreferred to as “tailings”. Also the terms “forward”, “rearward”, “left”and “right”, when used in connection with the agricultural harvesterand/or components thereof are usually determined with reference to thedirection of forward operative travel of the harvester, but again, theyshould not be construed as limiting. The terms “longitudinal” and“transverse” are determined with reference to the fore-and-aft directionof the agricultural harvester and are equally not to be construed aslimiting.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there isshown an agricultural harvester in the form of a combine 10, whichgenerally includes a chassis 12, ground engaging wheels 14 and 16, aheader 18, a feeder housing 20, an operator cab 22, a threshing andseparating system 24, a cleaning system 26, a grain tank 28, and anunloading auger 30. It should be appreciated that while the agriculturalharvester is shown as combine 10, the agricultural harvester accordingto the present invention can be any type of construction that allows forcrop material to be harvested such as a conventional combine (which doesnot have a rotor), rotary combine, hybrid combine, chopper harvester,etc.

Front wheels 14 are larger flotation type wheels, and rear wheels 16 aresmaller steerable wheels. Motive force is selectively applied to frontwheels 14 through a power plant in the form of a diesel engine 32 and atransmission (not shown). Although combine 10 is shown as includingwheels, is also to be understood that combine 10 may include tracks,such as full tracks or half tracks.

Header 18 is mounted to the front of combine 10 and includes a cutterbar 34 for severing crops from a field during forward motion of combine10. A rotatable reel 36 feeds the crop into header 18, and a doubleauger 38 feeds the severed crop laterally inwardly from each side towardfeeder housing 20. Feeder housing 20 conveys the cut crop to threshingand separating system 24, and is selectively vertically movable usingappropriate actuators, such as hydraulic cylinders (not shown).

Threshing and separating system 24 is of the axial-flow type, andgenerally includes a rotor 40 at least partially enclosed by androtatable within a corresponding perforated concave 42. The cut cropsare threshed and separated by the rotation of rotor 40 within concave42, and larger elements, such as stalks, leaves and the like aredischarged from the rear of combine 10. Smaller elements of cropmaterial including grain and non-grain crop material, includingparticles lighter than grain, such as chaff, dust and straw, aredischarged through perforations of concave 42. It should be appreciatedthat while the crop material is described further herein as grain, theagricultural harvester 10 according to the present invention can be usedto collect and process any type of crop material.

Grain which has been separated by the threshing and separating assembly24 falls onto an auger 44 and is conveyed toward cleaning system 26.Cleaning system 26 may include a pan 46, an upper sieve 48 (also knownas a chaffer sieve), a lower sieve 50 (also known as a shoe sieve), anda cleaning fan 52. Grain on sieves 48 and 50 is subjected to a cleaningaction by fan 52 which provides an airflow through the sieves to removechaff and other impurities such as dust from the grain by making thismaterial airborne for discharge from straw hood 54 of combine 10. Pan 46oscillates in a fore-to-aft manner to transport the grain and finernon-grain crop material to the upper surface of upper sieve 48. Uppersieve 48 and lower sieve 50 are vertically arranged relative to eachother, and likewise oscillate in a fore-to-aft manner to spread thegrain across sieves 48, 50, while permitting the passage of cleanedgrain by gravity through the openings of sieves 48, 50.

Clean grain falls to a clean grain auger 56 positioned crosswise belowand in front of lower sieve 50. Clean grain auger 56 receives cleangrain from each sieve 48, 50 and from bottom pan 62 of cleaning system26. Clean grain auger 56 conveys the clean grain laterally to agenerally vertically arranged elevator 60, which can also be referred toas a grain elevator, for transport to grain tank 28. Tailings fromcleaning system 26 fall to a tailings auger 64 via pan 58. The tailingsare transported via tailings auger 64 and return auger 66 to theupstream end of cleaning system 26 for repeated cleaning action. A pairof grain tank augers 68 at the bottom of grain tank 28 convey the cleangrain laterally within grain tank 28 to unloading auger 30 for dischargefrom combine 10.

The non-grain crop material proceeds through a residue handling system70. Residue handling system 70 can include a chopper assembly 72, shownin greater detail in FIGS. 2-7, that can chop the non-grain cropmaterial into finer pieces and a residue spreader (unnumbered) thatspreads chopped or unchopped non-grain crop material out the back of thecombine 10.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-3, an embodiment of the chopper assembly 72 isshown which generally includes movable chopping knives 74, a bank ofcounter knives 76 that can be moved to different positions to cooperatewith the chopping knives 74 to cut crop material, a shear bar 78 that ismovable between different positions, and a linkage assembly 80 connectedto the counter knives 76 and shear bar 78. The chopping knives 74 can berotated by a shaft (not shown) to move crop material in the chopperassembly 72 and chop the crop material when the chopper assembly 72 isin a chopping configuration, which is shown in FIG. 3 and describedfurther herein. While the chopping knives 74 are shown as being rotatingknives, the chopping knives 74 can be driven to have non-rotatingmotion. Further, the number of chopping knives 74 can be greatly variedto have as few as one chopping knife to more than one hundred choppingknives.

The counter knives 76 can be carried simultaneously on a knife carrier82 so that as the knife carrier 82 moves, the counter knives 76 will besimultaneously moved as well. As is known, the counter knives 76 have aspace defined between one another that the chopping knives 74 passthrough. As the chopping knives 74 pass through the space, the counterknives 76 act as holders for the crop material and provide sufficientresistance to the flow of crop material for the chopping knives 74 tochop through the crop material. In this sense, the counter knives 76cooperate with the chopping knives 74 to cut crop material when thecounter knives 76 are raised in an engaged position, as shown in FIG. 3,so that the chopping knives 74 can travel through the space between thecounter knives 76 and chop crop material that is held against thecounter knives 76. As shown in FIG. 2, the counter knives 76 can also bemoved to a disengaged position where the counter knives 76 do notcooperate with the chopping knives 74 so that the crop material carriedby the chopping knives 74 experiences significantly less chopping.

To switch the counter knives 76 between the disengaged and engagedpositions, the knife carrier 82 can be connected to a pivoting plate 84that is pivotally connected to a sheet 86 of the chopper assembly 72 andpivots about a first axis of rotation A1 defined by a bolt or otherconnector. This allows pivoting of the pivoting plate 84 to also pivotthe knife carrier 82 and counter knives 76 through a knife grate 88(shown in FIGS. 5-6) of a concave 90 of the chopper assembly 72 toengage and disengage the counter knives 76. Once the counter knives 76are engaged, a locking mechanism (not shown) can be employed to keep thecounter knives 76 locked in the engaged position and prevent the counterknives 76 from unintentionally being lowered through the knife grate 88into the disengaged position.

The shear bar 78 can also be moved between a disengaged position (shownin FIG. 2) and an engaged position (shown in FIG. 3) and be placed pastthe counter knives 76 in a direction of crop material flow through thechopper assembly 72. In the engaged position, the shear bar 78 canimpede a flow of crop material across the concave 90 and thus throughthe chopper assembly 72. This impediment can provide additional frictionat the shear bar 78 for the crop material and improve the chop qualityof the finer pieces produced by the chopper assembly 72.

The linkage assembly 80, as shown, is connected to both the counterknives 76 and shear bar 78 such that the linkage assembly 80 can beselectively actuated to move the counter knives 76 and shear bar 78between at least two different positions, as can be seen in FIGS. 2 and3. The linkage assembly 80 can include a knife arm 92 that pivots abouta shaft 98 defining a second axis of rotation A2 and be linked to thepivoting plate 84 by a linkage rod 94 so that as the knife arm 92 pivotsabout the second axis of rotation A2 in a pivoting direction, designatedas arrow 96 in FIG. 2, the pivoting plate 84 connected to the knifecarrier 82 will also pivot about the first axis of rotation A1 in thepivoting direction 96 to move the counter knives 76 through the knifegrate 88 into the engaged position. The knife arm 92 can be rotated bythe shaft 98 by selectively actuating a handle 100 connected to theshaft 98 so that as the handle 100 is pushed up or down, signified by uparrow 102 in FIG. 2 and down arrow 104 in FIG. 3, to torque the shaft 98and cause rotation. If desired, the shaft 98 can be rotated by analternative actuator such as an electric actuator, a pneumatic actuator,or a hydraulic actuator. As the knife arm 92 rotates in the pivotingdirection 96, the linkage rod 94 is pulled by the knife arm 92 in alinear direction, designated as arrows 106 in FIG. 2, and pulls thepivoting plate 84 in the linear direction 106 as well to cause thepivoting plate 84 to pivot the knife carrier 82 and counter knives 76into the engaged position. To return the counter knives 76 to thedisengaged position, the knife arm 92 can be rotated in another pivotingdirection, designated as arrow 108 in FIG. 3, opposite to the pivotingdirection 96 so that the linkage rod 94 is pushed by the knife arm 92 ina linear direction, designated as arrow 110 in FIG. 3, opposite to thelinear direction 106 and cause the pivoting plate 84 to pivot the knifecarrier 82 and counter knives 76 back through the knife grate 88 to thedisengaged position. It should be appreciated that the shown engagedposition and disengaged position represent only two of the possiblepositions that the counter knives 76 can be placed in by selectivelyactuating the linkage assembly 80 and that the counter knives 76 can beplaced in many other positions by varying the amount of selectiveactuation applied to the linkage assembly 80.

To move the shear bar 78 between different positions, the linkageassembly 80 can include a bar arm 112 that is linked to the shear bar 78and pivotally connected to the sheet 86 about a third axis of rotationA3 that is not coincident with the second axis of rotation A2 thatprovides the pivot for the knife arm 92. Such an arrangement allows forthe length of the knife arm 92 and bar arm 112 to be easily varied toproduce the appropriate amount of movement of the counter knives 76 andshear bar 78, respectively, as the linkage assembly 80 actuates. As thebar arm 112 pivots, the shear bar 78 will be carried by the bar arm 112to move through a bar opening 114 in the concave 90 to the engaged anddisengaged positions. To produce pivoting of the bar arm 112 as theknife arm 92 is pivoted, an engagement cam 116 can be carried by theshaft 98 and engage a surface 118 of the bar arm 112. As the engagementcam 116 is rotated by the shaft 98, the engagement cam 116 can push onthe surface 118 of the bar arm 112 to cause pivoting of the bar arm 112about the third axis of rotation A3, moving the shear bar 78 as the bararm 112 pivots. The engagement cam 116 can be a circular tube with aprojection, best seen in FIG. 4, or have other shapes that allow forcamming of the bar arm 112 as the knife arm 92 pivots due to rotation ofthe shaft 98. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the bar arm 112 can have a shapeand arrangement such that as the engagement cam 116 pivots with theknife arm 92 in the pivoting direction 96, the bar arm 112 is forced bythe engagement cam 116 to pivot in another pivoting direction,designated as arrow 120 in FIG. 2, that is opposite to the pivotingdirection 96 of the knife arm 92 and engagement cam 116 to move theshear bar 78 to the engaged position as shown in FIG. 3. Alternatively,the engagement cam 116 can be replaced with a gear (not shown) on theshaft 98 that is paired with another gear (not shown) linked to the bararm 112 to cause the bar arm 112 to pivot in the pivoting direction 120opposite to the pivoting direction 96 of the shaft 98 and raise theshear bar 78 into the engaged position.

To return the shear bar 78 to the disengaged position shown in FIG. 2,the knife arm 92 can be pivoted in a pivoting direction, designated asarrow 108 in FIG. 3, opposite to the pivoting direction 96 so that theengaging cam 116 does not force the surface 118 of the bar arm 112 topivot in the pivoting direction 120 and allows the bar arm 112 to pivotin a pivoting direction, designated as arrow 124 in FIG. 3, opposite tothe pivoting direction 108 and move the shear bar 78 back through thebar opening 114 and under the concave 90, where the shear bar 78 doesnot impede crop flow through the chopper assembly 72. The weight of theshear bar 78 can be enough to cause the bar arm 112 to pivot about thethird axis of rotation A3, but an optional pulling member 125, such as aspring, can be connected to the shear bar 78 and/or bar arm 112 to pullthe shear bar 78 and bar arm 112 back toward the disengaged position. Aswith the counter knives 76, the shown engaged and disengaged positionsof the shear bar 78 represent only two of the possible positions thatthe shear bar 78 can be moved to by selective actuation of the linkageassembly 80. It should thus be appreciated that the counter knives 76and shear bar 78 can be simultaneously moved to many different positionsusing the linkage assembly 80.

Referring now to FIGS. 4-6, the portion of the linkage assembly 80 thatmoves the shear bar 78 is shown in better detail. As can be seen, theengagement cam 116 can be a circular tube 126 fit over the shaft 98 thathas a projection 128 formed thereon that engages with the surface 118 ofthe bar arm 112. The circular tube 126 can have a pair of openings 130formed through a diameter of the circular tube 126 that align with apair of openings 132 formed through a diameter of the shaft 98, allowinga pin or other element (not shown) to be placed through both pairs ofopenings 130 and 132 to prevent rotation of the engagement cam 116relative to the shaft 98. If desired, the engagement cam 116 can haveshapes other than a circular tube 126 with a projection 130, such as aconventional oblong cam or a square tube fit over the shaft 98. As shownin FIG. 4, the engagement cam 116 is in a camming position where theprojection 128 engages the surface 118 of the bar arm 112 to push on thesurface 118, allowing the engagement cam 116 to cause the bar arm 112 topivot as the shaft 98 and engagement cam 116 rotate. As can be seen inFIGS. 5-6, two engagement cams 116 can be placed over the shaft 98 toengage two bar arms 112 connected to the shear bar 78. Rather thanrelying on the weight of the shear bar 78 or a pulling member 125 toforce the shear bar 78 toward the disengaged position, one of the bararms 112 and/or engagement cams 116 can be shaped and arranged such thateach of the engagement cams 116 acts as a counter-cam to the other, withone of the engagement cams causing upward movement of the shear bar 78when the shaft 98 is rotated in one direction and the other engagementcam causing downward movement of the shear bar 78 when the shaft 98 isrotated in the opposite direction.

In some instances, it may be desired to place the counter knives 76 inthe engaged position to chop crop material but also place the shear bar78 in a disengaged position so that the shear bar 78 does not impedecrop flow through the chopper assembly 72. To accomplish this, andreferring now to FIG. 5, the circular tube 126 of the engagement cam 116can be rotated relative to the shaft 98 so that the projection 128 ofthe engagement cam 116 does not engage the surface 118 of the bar arm112 and cannot cause pivoting of the bar arm 112 as the shaft 98 andengagement cam 116 rotate. In this position, which can be referred to asa non-camming position, the shear bar 78 does not move simultaneouslywith the counter knives 76 and can be kept in the disengaged positiondue to a disengagement force caused by the weight of the shear bar 78,displacement force from the spring 125, and/or a camming force from anengagement cam 116 acting on the shear bar 78 to force and maintain theshear bar 78 below the bar opening 114. As shown in FIG. 6, the counterknives 76 can therefore be moved to the engaged position to cooperatewith the chopping knives 74 and cut crop material with the shear bar 78in the disengaged position and not impeding the flow of crop materialthrough the chopper assembly 72.

Referring now to FIG. 7, the chopper assembly 72 is shown with analternative embodiment of a linkage assembly 140 connected to thecounter knives 76 and shear bar 78 to simultaneously move the counterknives 76 and shear bar 78 between various positions. As can be seen,the linkage assembly 140 can include a knife arm 142 that pivots about ashaft 144 defining an axis of rotation A4 and is linked to the pivotingplate 84 by a linkage rod 146, similarly to the linkage assembly 80.Selective actuation of a handle 148 connected to the shaft 144 causesthe knife arm 142 to pivot about the shaft 144 in a pivoting direction,designated as arrow 150, and cause the linkage rod 146 to be pulled in alinear direction, designated as arrow 152, and thus cause the pivotingplate 84, knife carrier 82 and counter knives 76 to also pivot in thepivoting direction 150. To cause movement of the shear bar 78, abellcrank 154 can be connected to the shear bar 78 and pivotable aboutan axis of rotation A5, such as a tube or shaft, such that pivoting ofthe bellcrank 154 causes linear movement of the shear bar 78. Thebellcrank 154 can be formed to have a 90° angle, as shown, or otherangles if desired. The bellcrank 154 can be linked to the pivoting plate84 by a second linkage rod 156 so that as the handle 148 is actuatedupward, as shown, the second linkage rod 156 is pulled in the lineardirection 152 to cause the bellcrank 154 to pivot in the same pivotingdirection 150 as the pivoting plate 84 and linearly move the shear bar78. As can be seen, the upward movement of the handle 148 causes theshown linkage assembly 140 to move the counter knives 76 and shear bar78 toward the disengaged position, with movement of the handle 148 inthe downward direction causing the linkage assembly 140 to move thecounter knives 76 and shear bar 78 toward the engaged position. Itshould be appreciated that the linkage assembly 140 can also be readilyconfigured so that upward movement of the handle 148 causes the linkageassembly 140 to move the counter knives 76 and shear bar 78 toward thedisengaged position and downward movement of the handle 148 causes thelinkage assembly 140 to move the counter knives 76 and shear bar 78toward the engaged position.

In another embodiment, and referring now to FIGS. 8-9, the chopperassembly 72 shown in FIGS. 2-5 has the linkage assembly 80 shown inFIGS. 2-5 with the addition of a secondary engagement cam 116B placedover the shaft 98 in addition to a primary engagement cam, referenced inFIGS. 8-9 as 116A. The secondary engagement cam 116B has a differentcircumferential position on the shaft 98 so that when the handle 100 hasbeen pulled down, as shown in FIG. 8, the secondary engagement cam 116Bcan be lightly contacting or adjacent to the bar arm 112 but not cammingthe bar arm 112 so as to raise the shear bar 78 to an engaged position.When the handle 100 and linkage assembly 80 are in the position shown inFIG. 8, which is similar to the position of the handle 100 and linkageassembly 80 shown in FIG. 2, both the counter knives 76 and shear bar 78are in the disengaged position. In some instances, it may be desired toraise the shear bar 78 without raising the counter knives 76, especiallywhen some chopping of crop material is desired but the counter knives 76would be damaged if used in conjunction with the rotating knives 74 tochop the crop material. The shear bar 78, which is relatively thickcompared to each individual counter knife 76, can therefore allow somechopping action of the crop material to occur with a reduced risk ofbeing damaged. To accomplish this, and referring now to FIG. 9, thehandle 100 connected to the linkage assembly 80 can be pushed furtherdown from the position shown in FIG. 8 to cause rotation of the shaft 98that will rotate the secondary engagement cam 116B to cam the bar arm112 and raise the shear bar 78. Rotation of the shaft 98 will also causerotation of the knife arm 92 in the pivoting direction 108, causinglinear movement of the linkage rod 94 in the linear direction 110 andfurther pivoting of the pivoting plate 84, knife carrier 82, and counterknives 76 in the pivoting direction 108. The counter knives 76 willtherefore pivot further away from the engaged position shown in FIG. 3,allowing the shear bar 78 to be placed in the engaged position while thecounter knives 76 are in a disengaged position. To put both the counterknives 76 and shear bar 78 in the engaged position, the handle 100 canbe raised to the position shown in FIG. 3 so the counter knives 76 arepivoted into the engaged position by the knife arm 92 causing pivotingof the pivoting plate 84 and the primary engagement cam 116A engagingthe bar arm 112 to raise the shear bar 78. It can therefore be seen thatthe handle 100 can have three positions affecting what elements areengaged when the secondary engagement cam 116B is included: a neutralposition where the counter knives 76 and shear bar 78 are both in adisengaged position (shown in FIG. 8); a bar engaged position where theshear bar 78 is moved to the engaged position by the secondaryengagement cam 116B and the counter knives 76 are in a disengagedposition (shown in FIG. 9); and a bar and knife engaged position wherethe shear bar 78 is moved to the engaged position by primary cam 116Aand the counter knives 76 are also moved to an engaged position (similarto FIG. 3). It should be appreciated that the secondary engagement cam116B can also be rotated on the shaft 98 to allow the counter knives 76to be engaged without engaging the shear bar 78, as previouslydescribed.

In yet another embodiment, and referring now to FIGS. 10-11, the linkageassembly 80 can include an engagement cam 160 and a disengagement cam162 which are both rotated by the shaft 98 and a modified bar arm 164that encircles the cams 160 and 162 and shaft 98. As can be seen, thebar arm 164 can include a pivoting portion 166 to allow the bar arm 164to pivot, a surrounding portion 168 including surrounding walls 168A,168B, 168C, and 168D to allow camming of the bar arm 164, and a barconnecting portion 170 that connects to the shear bar 78 and allows theshear bar 78 to be moved by the bar arm 164. As shown in FIG. 10, theshaft 98 has been rotated so that the engagement cam 160 has engagedsurrounding wall 168A in order to force the bar connecting portion 170and connected shear bar 78 up, placing the shear bar 78 in an engagedposition so the shear bar 78 is in the crop material flow within thechopper assembly 72. When the shaft 98 is rotated clockwise, as shown inFIG. 11, the engagement cam 160 is rotated so that the engagement cam160 is no longer engaging surrounding wall 168A and the disengagementcam 162 engages the surrounding wall 168C to force the bar connectingportion 170 and connected shear bar 78 down, retracting the shear bar 78so that the shear bar 78 is no longer in the crop material flow. Such aconfiguration allows the engagement cam 160 to move the shear bar 78into an engaged position when desired, but also allows the disengagementcam 162 to provide a positive disengagement force to retract the shearbar 78 when desired.

While this invention has been described with respect to at least oneembodiment, the present invention can be further modified within thespirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is thereforeintended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the inventionusing its general principles. Further, this application is intended tocover such departures from the present disclosure as come within knownor customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains andwhich fall within the limits of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An agricultural harvester, comprising: a chassis;a threshing and separating assembly carried by said chassis; and achopper assembly carried by said chassis that receives crop materialfrom said threshing and separating assembly, said chopper assemblyincluding: at least one movable chopping knife; a plurality of counterknives movable between a first knife position and a second knifeposition, said plurality of counter knives configured to cooperate withsaid at least one chopping knife to cut crop material when in said firstknife position; a shear bar movable between a first bar position and asecond bar position; and a linkage assembly connected to said pluralityof counter knives and said shear bar such that said linkage assembly isselectively actuable to simultaneously move said plurality of counterknives between said first knife position and said second knife positionand said shear bar between said first bar position and said second barposition, wherein said linkage assembly includes a pivotable knife armlinked to said plurality of counter knives and a pivotable bellcranklinked to said shear bar and to said knife arm, wherein pivoting of saidknife arm moves said plurality of counter knives between said firstknife position and said second knife position and pivoting of saidbellcrank moves said shear bar between said first bar position and saidsecond bar position.
 2. The agricultural harvester according to claim 1,wherein said shear bar is configured to impede a flow of crop materialthrough said chopper assembly in said first bar position and be removedfrom said flow of crop material in said second bar position.
 3. Theagricultural harvester according to claim 2, wherein said plurality ofcounter knives do not cooperate with said at least one chopping knife insaid second knife position.
 4. The agricultural harvester according toclaim 1, wherein said knife arm pivots about a first pivoting axis andsaid bellcrank pivots about a second pivoting axis that is notcoincident with said first pivoting axis.
 5. The agricultural harvesteraccording to claim 1, wherein said linkage assembly is connected to andselectively actuable by at least one of a handle, a hydraulic actuator,a pneumatic actuator, and an electric actuator.
 6. The agriculturalharvester according to claim 1, wherein said bellcrank has a 90° anglebetween the connections to said knife arm and said shear bar.
 7. Achopper assembly for an agricultural harvester, comprising: at least onemovable chopping knife; a plurality of counter knives movable between afirst knife position and a second knife position, said plurality ofcounter knives configured to cooperate with said at least one choppingknife to cut crop material when in said first knife position; a shearbar movable between a first bar position and a second bar position; anda linkage assembly connected to said plurality of counter knives andsaid shear bar such that said linkage assembly is selectively actuableto simultaneously move said plurality of counter knives between saidfirst knife position and said second knife position and said shear barbetween said first bar position and said second bar position, whereinsaid linkage assembly includes a pivotable knife arm linked to saidplurality of counter knives and a pivotable bellcrank linked to saidshear bar and to said knife arm, wherein pivoting of said knife armmoves said plurality of counter knives between said first knife positionand said second knife position and pivoting of said bellcrank moves saidshear bar between said first bar position and said second bar position.8. The chopper assembly according to claim 7, wherein said bellcrank hasa 90° angle between the connections to said knife arm and said shearbar.